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EXTRACTS 



FROM 



WRITINGS OF FRIENDS, 



ON 



THE SUBJECT OF SLAVERY, 



Published by direction of the «* Association of Friends for Advocating the 

Cause of the Slave, and Improving the Condition of the Free 

People of Color. " 



PHILADELPHIA: 
MKRRIHEW AND THOMPSON, PRINTER 

No. 7 Carter's Alley. 
1839. 



H S.,i;' 



PREFACE. 



Q? 



The following little work is made up of a few extracts from 
the writings of Friends on slavery, and from the historical ac- 
count of the progress of our testimony on this subject. It is 
published with a hope that it may be instrumental in awaken- 
ing some to increased diligence, by stirring up in their memo- 
ries the deep suffering and travail of spirit which many of our 
early Friends passed through in the rise of this testimony. We 
find in the founder of our religious society a concern — perhaps 
the earliest manifestation of feeling on the subject — time after 
time those were raised up to advocate the cause of this deeply 
injured people. They boldly and zealously avowed their oppo- 
sition to the practice of holding their fellow creatures in slavery, 
and their belief that it was utterly at variance with the true 
principles of Christianity. Surrounded as they were by slave- 
holders, those who had been brought up to regard the colored 
man as an inferior being — as property — it is no marvel that their 
benevolent efforts were violently opposed. But urged on by a 
sense of duty, and a love of truth, they steadfastly and unwa- 
veringly maintained their ground amidst the fiery persecution 
to which they were subjected, and the long-cherished and deep- 
rooted prejudices which they had to encounter. One by one 
new converts to the truth of their principles were led to espouse 
the cause, and in the process of time the Society adopted a rule 
of discipline, prohibiting its members from holding slaves. 
Our religious society was the first denomination that washed 
its hands from the inhuman and unchristian practice; but when 
this was done, and as a society, they were clear of slaveholding, 
did the testimony fall ? No, far from it. Those truly benevo- 
lent and philanthropic minds who were enabled clearly to see 
the injustice of slavery, viewed this as but the beginning of a 



[ 4 ] 

mighty reformation. Encouraged and stimulated by the suc- 
cess with which their labors had been crowned in their own 
society, they resumed their efforts in behalf of the slave with 
renewed energy. They beheld the red men of the forest inhu- 
manly driven from their homes, barbarous cruelties inflicted on 
their persons, and their property stolen from them, to gratify the 
avarice of the white man. They beheld the small remnant of 
once mighty nations who were left to tell the story of the 
wrongs which their people had suffered, and they looked for- 
ward, with the sorrowful contemplation that but a few more years 
would complete their extinction. They beheld, also, still 
greater enormities being practised upon another portion of the 
human family, who were not only forcibly taken from their na- 
tive land, from the endearments of home, but whose families 
were rudely torn apart, and the nearest ties of nature rent 
asunder in a far, a strange country, reduced to slavery — vic- 
tims — a prey to the same sordid avarice which was extermi- 
nating the poor defenceless Indian. In view of these great 
evils which were invoking the Divine displeasure, they were 
led to embrace every right opening to plead in behalf of the op- 
pressed, and to declare to the people the truth " that righteous- 
ness exalteth a nation," while " sin is a reproach to any peo- 
ple." The testimony seemed to grow and increase. Many 
among other societies were enlisted, and became efficient advo- 
cates of emancipation. A Wilberforce, a Clarkson, and many 
others, united with Friends in promoting this good work. We 
ardently desire that Friends of the present time may be engaged 
to exalt still higher the testimony of truth on this subject. 



EXTRACTS. 



GEORGE FOX. 

" la the West Indies, also, he exhorted those who at- 
tended his meetings, to be merciful to their slaves, and to 
give them their freedom in due time. He considered these 
as belonging to their families, and that religious instruc- 
tion was due to these as the branches of them, for whom, 
one day or other, they would be required to give a solemn 
account. Happy had it been if these Christian exhorta- 
tions had been attended to, or if these families only, whom 
he thus seriously addressed, had continued to be true 
Quakers ; for they would have set an example, which 
would have proved to the rest of the islanders, and the 
world at large, that the impolicy is not less than the wick- 
edness of oppression. Thus was George Fox probably 
the first person who publicly declared against this species 
of slavery. Nothing, in short, that could be deplored by 
humanity, seems to have escaped his eye ; and his be- 
nevolence, when excited, appears to have suffered no in- 
terruption in its progress by the obstacles which bigotry 
would have thrown in the way of many, on the account 
of the difference of a person's country, or his color, or his 
sect." — Clarkson's Portraiture of Quakerism. 

" It is somewhat remarkable that the first manifestation 
of a religious concern among Friends on the subject of 
slavery, occurs in the history of these German Friends 
settled at Germantown. In the year 1688, they present- 
ed a protest, drawn by Daniel F. Pastorius, to the Yearly 
Meeting then held at Burlington, against buying, selling, 
or holding men in slavery, as inconsistent with the Chris- 
tian religion." — Friends' Miscellany. 

" Third month 12th, 1785, in conversation with our 
friend John Forman, of North Wales, mention was made 
of Benjamin Lay. I said, I thought he was the first 
1* 



[ 6 ] 

Friend that bore a testimony against slave-keeping. He 
said, * No, there was one John Farmer, a Friend, on a 
visit from England that had a very powerful testimony 
against the oppression of the black people.' He informed 
me that at a meeting in Pennsylvania, this John Farmer 
bore his testimony against slave-keeping, and a great man, 
who kept negroes, being there, got up and desired Friends 
to look on that man as an open enemy to the country ; 
and some Friends also bearing rather hard against him, 
persuaded him to make something like an acknowledg- 
ment. This so struck John Farmer that he sunk under 
it, declined in his gift, and never went back to England, 
but died here. 

On his death-bed he said, he was entirely easy about 
every thing but that of flinching from his testimony at that 
time, and in that manner." — John Hunt. 



Ralph Sandiford. — " The result of his inquiry was 
delivered in the following sound opinion : « The holding 
of Negroes in slavery is inconsistent with the rights of 
man, and contrary to the preceps of the Author of Chris- 
tianity.' With this doctrine he began his career in the 
work of reformation, and in this conviction he closed his 
benevolent labors, and with them his earthly pilgrimage." 

" From the time of his first arrival in Pennsylvania, 
until the year 1729, he was zealously engaged, through 
all the vicissitudes of his fortune, in promulgating his 
opinions on the subject of slavery. This he did by a 
strong exposition of his sentiments, when he supposed 
they might have the least influence on the minds of those 
whom he met; and so deeply was his mind engaged with 
this important concern, that he sought opportunities of 
provoking discussion respecting it wherever he went." 
Memoirs of R. Sandiford, by R. Vaux. 

BENJAMIN LAY. 

In reviewing the life and character of this distinguished 
man, we find him possessed with considerable powers of 
mind, which were assiduously devoted to the promulga- 
tion of his views on the subject of slavery, in which he 
was deeply interested, and against which he bore a faith- 



[ 7 ] 

ful and practical testimony. His benevolent mind was 
enabled to see the sinfulness of this inhuman practice ; and 
his zeal in advocating its abolition, together with the sin- 
gular and striking means to which he resorted to impress 
upon the minds of the people its importance, laid him open 
to the charge of fanaticism. His appeals were pathetic, 
and could but be forcibly felt. One day he stood barefoot 
in the street, on the snow, and noticing a manifestation of 
sympathy on the part of the passers by : 

"Ah, (said he) you pretend compassion for me, but you 
do not feel for the poor slaves in your fields, who go half 
clad all winter." 

One of his neighbors inquiring, in great distress, for his 
lost child, Lay paused and said, " Your child is safe in 
my house, and you may now conceive of the sorrow you 
inflict upon the parents of the negro girl you hold in sla- 
very, for she was torn from them by avarice." 

Not long before his death, a friend of Lay's made him a 
visit for the purpose of acquainting him that the religious 
Society of Friends had come to the determination to dis- 
own such of their members as could not be persuaded to 
desist from the practice of holding slaves, or were con- 
cerned in the importation of them. The venerable and 
constant friend and advocate of that oppressed race of 
men, attentively listened to this heart-cheering intelligence, 
and after a few moments reflection on what he had heard, 
he rose from his chair, and in an attitude of devotional 
reverence poured forth this pious ejaculation : '* Thanks- 
giving and praise be rendered unto the Lord God." After 
a short pause, he added, " I can now die in peace." 

Sarah Lay was an intelligent and pious woman, an ap- 
proved minister of the Gospel in the Society of Friends ; 
she cordially united with her husband in his disapproba- 
tion of slavery, and contributed all in her power to the 
support of his mind under the trials which he suffered in 
his exertions to promote a change in public sentiment, re- 
specting the inhumanity and injustice of the custom. 

Memoirs of B. Lay, by R. Vaux. 



[ 8 ] 

Extracts from Anthony BenezeVs Notes on the. 
Slave Trade. 
"You have seen them torn away, children from their 
parents, parents from their children ; husbands from their 
wives, wives from their beloved husbands ; brethren and 
sisters from each other. You have dragged them who had 
never done you any wrong, perhaps in chains, from their 
native shore. You have forced them into your ships, like 
an herd of swine, them who had souls immortal as your 
own. You have stowed them together as close as ever 
they could lie, without any regard to decency or conve- 
niency. — And when many of them had been poisoned by 
foul air, or had sunk under various hardships, 'you have 
seen their remains delivered to the deep, till the sea should 
give up his dead.' You have carried the survivors into 
the vilest slavery, never to end but with life : Such sla- 
very as is not found among the Turks at Algiers, no, nor 
among the heathens in America." 

" Are you a man ? Then you should have a human 
heart. But have you indeed ? What is your heart made of? 
Is there no such principle as compassion there ? Do you 
never feel another's pain ? Have you no sympathy ? No 
sense of human woe ? No pity for the miserable? When 
you saw the flowing eyes, the heaving breast, or the bleed- 
ing sides and tortured limbs of your fellow-creatures, was 
you a stone or a brute ? Did you look upon them with 
the eyes of a tiger ? When you squeezed the agonizing 
creatures down in the ship, or when you threw their poor 
mangled remains into the sea, had you no relentings ? Did 
not one tear drop from your eye, one sigh escape from 
your breast ? Do you feel no relenting now ? If you do 
not, you must go on till the measure of your iniquities is 
full. Then will the great God deal with you, as you have 
dealt with them, and require all their blood at your hands. 
And at that day it shall be more tolerable for Sodom and 
Gomorrah than for you : But if your heart does relent, 
though in a small degree, know it is a call from the God 
of Love. And to-day, if you hear his voice, harden not 
your heart — to-day resolve, God being your helper to es- 
cape for your life. Regard not money: All that a man hath 
will he give for his life. Whatever you lose, lose not your 



C 9 ] 

soul ; nothing can countervail that loss. Immediately quit 
the horrid trade : At all events be an honest man." 

" And this equally concerns every person who has an 
estate in our American plantations : Yea, all slave-holders 
of whatever rank and degree ; seeing men-buyers are ex- 
actly on a level with men-stealers. Indeed you say, ' I 
pay honestly for my goods ; and I am ' not concerned to 
know how they are ' come by.' Nay but you are : You 
are deeply concerned, to know that they are not stolen : 
Otherwise you are partaker with a thief, and are not a jot 
honester than him. But you know they are not honestly 
come by : You know they are procured by means nothing 
near so innocent as picking of pockets, house breaking, or 
robbery upon the highway. You know they are procured 
by a deliberate series of more complicated villainy (of 
fraud, robbery and murder) than was ever practised either 
by Mahometans or Pagans ; in particular by murders of all 
kinds ; by the blood of the innocent poured upon the 
ground like water. Now it is your money that pays the 
merchant, and thro' him the captain and African butchers. 
You therefore are guilty : Yea, principally guilty, of all 
these frauds, robberies, and murders. You are the spring 
that puts all the rest in motion ; they would not stir a step 
without you — Therefore the blood of all these wretches, 
who die before their time, whether in their country or 
elsewhere, lies upon your head. The blood of thy bro- 
ther, (for whether thou wilt believe it or no, such he is in 
the sight of him that made him) crieth against thee from 
the earth, from the ship and from the waters. O ! what- 
ever it cost, put a stop to its cry, before it be too late. In- 
stantly, at any price, were it the half of thy goods, deliver 
thyself from blood guiltiness ! Thy hands, thy bed, thy 
furniture, thy house, thy land, are at present stained with 
blood. Surely it is enough ; accumulate no more guilt: 
Spill no more the blood of the innocent ! Do not hire 
another to shed blood ! Do not pay him for doing it ! 
Whether thou art a Christian or no, shew thyself a man ; 
be not more savage than a lion or a bear. 

" Perhaps thou wilt say, ' I do not buy any Negroes : I 
only use those left me by my father.' But is it enough 
to satisfy your own conscience ! Had your father, have 
you, has any man living, a right to use another as a Slave ? 



C 10 ] 

It cannot be, even setting REVELATION aside. It can- 
not be, that either war, or contract, can give any man such 
a property in another as he has in his sheep and oxen : 
Much less is it possible, that any child of man, should 
ever be born a Slave. Liberty is the right of every human 
creature, as soon as he breathes the vital air. And no hu- 
man law can deprive him of that right, which he derives 
from the law of nature. If therefore you have any regard 
to justice, (to say nothing of mercy, nor of the revealed 
law of GOD) render unto all their due. Give Liberty to 
whom Liberty is due, that is to every child of man, to 
every partaker of human nature. Let none serve you but 
by his own act and deed, by his own voluntary choice ; 
away with whips, chains, and all compulsion. Be gentle 
towards all men. And see that you invariably do unto 
every one, as you would he should do unto you." 

Testimony of Yorkshire Quarterly Meeting concerning 
John Woolman. 

" He was deeply concerned on account of that inhuman 
and iniquitous practice of making slaves of the people of 
Africa, or holding them in that state ; and on that account 
we understand he hath not only wrote some books, but 
travelled much on the continent of America, in order to 
make the negro-masters (especially those in profession 
with us) sensible of the evil of such a practice. And though 
in this journey to England, he was far removed from the 
outward sight of their sufferings, yet his deep exercise of 
mind remained ; as appears by a short treatise he wrote in 
this journey, and his frequent concern to open the miser- 
able state of this deeply injured people." 

The following example of faithfulness to the dictates of 
truth, in what was at that time considered a small thing — 
but which was instrumental in effecting the liberation of 
several of his fellow-beings, is well worthy of imitation. 

"About this time, an ancient man of good esteem in the 
neighborhood, came to my house to get his will wrote. 
He had young negroes ; and I, asking him privately how 
he purposed to dispose of them, he told me : I then said, 
I cannot write thy will without breaking my own peace ; 
and respectfully gave him my reasons for it. He signified 
that he had a choice that I should have wrote it ; but as I 



C 11 ] 

could not, consistent with my conscience, he did not de- 
sire it ; and so he got it wrote by some other person. And 
a few years after, there being great alterations in his fa- 
mily, he came again to get me to write his will : his ne- 
groes were yet young; and his son, to whom he intended 
to give them, was, since he first spoke to me, from a liber- 
tine become a sober young man ; and he supposed, that I 
would have been free, on that account, to write it. We 
had much friendly talk on the subject, and then deferred it : 
and a few days after, he came again, and directed their 
freedom ; and so I wrote his will. 

"Near the time the last mentioned friend first spoke to 
me, a neighbour received a bad bruise in his body, and 
sent for me to bleed him ; which being done, he desired 
me to write his will. I took notes; and amongst other 
things, he told me to which of his children he gave his 
young negro. I considered the pain and distress he was 
in, and knew not how it would end : so I wrote his will, 
save only that part concerning his slave ; and, carrying it 
to his bed-side, read it to him : and then told him, in a 
friendly way, that I could not write any instruments by 
which my fellow-creatures were made slaves without bring- 
ing trouble on my own mind. I let him know that I charg- 
ed nothing for what I had done ; and desired to be excus- 
ed from doing the other part in the way he proposed. We 
then had a serious conference on the subjent ; and at length, 
he agreeing to set her free, I finished his will." 

" Should we contemplate on their circumstances, when 
suddenly attacked, and labor to understand their inex- 
pressible anguish of soul who survive the conflict; — should 
we think on inoffensive women, who fled at the alarm, 
and at their return saw that village in which they and their 
acquaintance were raised up, and had pleasantly spent their 
youthful days, now, lying in a gloomy desolation; some 
shocked at finding the mangled bodies of their near friends 
amongst the slain ; others bemoaning the absence of a 
brother, a sister, a child, or a whole family of children, 
who, by cruel men, are bound and carried to market to be 
sold, without the least hopes of seeing them agttin: — add 
to this, the afflicted condition of these poor captives, who 
are separated from family connexions, and all the comforts 



[ 12 ] 

arising from friendship and acquaintance; — carried amongst 
a people of a strange language, to be parted from their 
fellow-captives, — put to labor in a manner more servile 
and wearisome than what they were used to, with many 
sorrowful circumstances attending their slavery ; — and we 
must necessarily see that it belongs not to the followers of 
Christ to be parties in such a trade, on the motives of out- 
ward gain." 

"The upright in heart cannot succeed the wicked in 
their wickedness ; nor is it consonant to the life they live, 
to hold fast an advantage unjustly gained." 

" It is granted by many, that the means used in getting 
them (the slaves) are unrighteous, and that buying them, 
when brought here, is wrong ; yet as setting them free is 
attended with some difficulty, they do not comply with it ; 
but seem to be of the opinion, that to give them food and 
raiment, and keep them servants, without any other wa- 
ges, is the best way to manage them that they know of: 
and hoping that their children after them will not be cruel 
to the negroes, conclude to leave them as slaves to their 
children. 

" While present outward interest is the chief object of 
our attention, we shall feel many objections in our minds 
against renouncing our claim to them, as the children of 
slaves : for, being prepossessed with wrong opinions, pre- 
vents our seeing things clearly, which to indifferent per- 
sons, are easy to be seen." 

" If we seriously consider that liberty is the right of in- 
nocent men ; — that the mighty God is a refuge for the op- 
pressed ; — that in reality we are indebted to ihem ; — that 
they being set free, are still liable to the penalties of our 
laws, and as likely to have punishment for their crimes as 
other people : this may answer all our objections. And 
to retain them in perpetual servitude, without just cause 
for it, will produce effects, in the event, more grievous 
than setting them free would do, when a real love to truth 
and equity was the motive to it." 

♦'Negroes are our fellow-creatures, and their present 
condition amongst us requires our serious consideration. 
We know not the time when those scales in which moun- 
tains are weighed, may turn. The Parent of mankind is 



[ 13 ] 

gracious ; his care is over his smallest creatures ; and a 
multitude of men escape not his notice. And though ma- 
ny of them are trodden down, and despised, yet he re- 
members them. He seeth their affliction, and looketh up- 
on the spreading, increasing exaltation of the oppressor. 
He turns the channels of power, humbles the most haugh- 
ty people, and gives deliverance to the oppressed, at such 
periods as are consistent with his infinite justice and good- 
ness. And wherever gain is preferred to equity, and 
wrong things publicly encouraged, to that degree that wick- 
edness takes root, and spreads wide amongst the inhabi- 
tants of a country, there is real cause for sorrow to all such 
whose love to mankind stands on a true principle, and who 
wisely consider the end and event of things." 

John Woolmarvs Works. 



Extract from William Tuke's letter to R. Haines, on 
the death of John Woolman : 

" His last testimony was in a meeting for discipline, on 
the subject of the slave-trade ; remarking, that as Friends 
had been solicitous for and had obtained relief from many 
of their sufferings, so he recommended this oppressed part 
of the creation to their notice, that they may in an indi- 
vidual capacity, as way may open, present their hardships 
and sufferings to those in authority, especially the legis- 
lative power in this kingdom. I am persuaded that this 
last public labor made a deep impression on many minds. 
I wish the great sufferings he hath passed through on ac- 
count of this oppressed and injured people may deeply 
affect the minds of those in America among whom he hath 
faithfully and painfully labored, and of whom he said he 
was clear." — Friends' Miscellany. 

JAMES PEMBERTON. 

" His philanthropy was not limited to any one sect or 
class of people,— it flowed towards all, without respect to 
nation, condition, or color. The multiplied sufferings and 
evils inflicted on the African race, made such impression 
on his mind through a long period of his life, that he di- 
rected a considerable portion of his attention, and employ- 
ed much of his time, in endeavours to meliorate the 
wretchedness, and improve the condition of this degraded 

2 



[ 14 ] 

class of our fellow beings. And he lived to witness the 
fruits of the unwearied efforts of the advocates of the na- 
tural rights of men. In the year 1774, he was among the 
first of those philanthropists, " who," as Clarkson says, 
" undertook the important task of bringing those into a 
society, who were friendly to this cause ;" and who suc- 
ceeded in establishing the " Society for promoting the 
abolition of Slavery, the relief of free negroes unlawfully 
held in bondage, and for improving the condition of the 
African race." He filled several important offices in the 
Society, and continued a member thereof until his decease. 
During all this time, his exertions were indefatigable in 
the promotion of those benevolent objects for which it 
was instituted. 

James Pemberton, A. Benezet, and many other prominent 
Friends were instrumental in forming this Society. The 
former held, for a series of years, the offices of President 
and Vice President. They succeeded in awakening con- 
siderable abhorrence of Slavery, by their untiring zeal in 
the cause, and spirited appeals to their fellow citizens in 
behalf of the slave. In this great work, they were asso- 
ciated with Dr. Benjamin Franklin, B. Rush, Tench Coxe, 
and many others of other societies. 



WARNER MIFFLIN. 

" It is from a sense of duty both to myself, and to my 
country that I make these observations, and state some 
things interesting to both. It was on this ground I be- 
came engaged with others to urge the subject of our righte- 
ous concern to different legislatures, in order to remove 
legislative obstacles from those who are disposed to libe- 
rate their slaves, and to protect those who are set free. 
And though salutary laws have been enacted in some states, 
tor which I believe a blessing will attend them, yet still 
the evil is continued in other parts where conscientious 
persons are discouraged from liberating their slaves, as by 
existing laws the blacks are liable again to be taken in 
bondage by dissolute people who are disposed to avail 
themselves of unrighteous laws, and in many instances 
great numbers have been cruelly seized and sold into re- 
newed bondage. Doth not this excite a fearful apprehen- 
sion, that the measure of their iniquity is filling, who so 



C 15 ] 

act, and that they are ripening for the chastisement which 
shall be poured upon the workers of iniquity. An ad- 
ditional enormity prevailing', is the kidnapping of free 
blacks, carrying them off and selling them for slaves, in 
some instances whole families, and in others separating 
them one from another. 

It is urged as a great objection to the emancipation of 
the blacks, their disposition for pilfering. But is not the 
depriving of them of that most valuable property, liberty, 
and keeping them under the oppression of slavery, the 
very cause of this fault. Being pinched at times for every 
necessary of life, they put forth a hand to partake of what 
in equity their labor gives them a claim to, from their 
possessors, where due support is withheld, and these prac- 
tices becoming habitual in their impoverished condition, 
they discriminate not sufficiently between the property of 
those they labor for and others, but when opportunity 
presents frequently supply their wants from all alike, ex- 
cept when a principle of religious rectitude restrains from 
all such acts. I attempt not to palliate the crime." 

Having liberated a considerable number of black people, 
which were in his possession, he assisted his father, in a 
like laudible concern, to liberate many more, who were 
in the condition of slaves. And when our religious socie- 
ty, in general, became clear of this unrighteous imposition 
upon mankind, his concern appeared to be enlarged, to 
labor amongst other people. Forcibly expostulating with 
ministers and clergymen, of different denominations and 
degrees, — with delegates in congress in different slates, — 
with governors, judges, and magistrates, in Christian bold- 
ness, — being influenced by wisdom from above, — he en- 
deavored to dissuade rulers from countenancing or en- 
couraging the unrighteous traffic in human flesh — and to 
convince all classes of the injustice, cruelty, and oppres- 
sion connected with enslaving, or holding in slavery, our 
fellow men. He was much concerned, that professing 
Christians might not be accessary to add to the guilt al- 
ready incurred, on account of this cruel traffic and prac- 
tice ; and which he believed would occasion the pouring 
forth of the Lord's indignation upon those places where 
such abominations continued. Under these exercises, his 
diligence and zeal, in advocating the cause of the oppress- 



C 16 ] 

ed, further appears, by many letters, writings, and notes, 
which he left behind him. 

Being endowed with a benevolent mind, accompanied 
in an eminent degree with that philanthropy which cha- 
racterizes the true Christian, he was a most distinguished 
friend to that poor and despised race of mankind, the Afri- 
can people, for whose emancipation from a state of bon- 
dage, he not only labored in his own society, so long as 
the members of it continued to hold slaves, but on all oc- 
casions, when his lot was cast amongst those who con- 
tinued to countenance the unrighteous traffic in human 
flesh, he was concerned tenderly and faithfully to warn 
them of the danger to which they were exposing them- 
selves ; and of the distress and misery it would bring upon 
them in a dying hour, if they continued in practices so 
repugnant to that righteous law held forth in the precepts 
of the gospel, " Do unto all men, as ye would they should 
do unto you." And ever since the abolition of the slave 
trade in these states, he seldom failed at the annual assem- 
blies, (when he was present,) in his own society to hold 
up to view, in a very affecting manner, the cause of this 
afflicted people ; exciting in his fellow members a tender 
feeling for their sufferings under the hand of oppression, 
and recommending the exercise of the spirit of prayer to 
the great Controller of events, for their deliverance and 
more general emancipation from a state of slavery ; as also 
an unremitted attention to their guarded education, and 
religious instruction. — Friends Miscellany. 

Extracts from manuscripts of John Parrish. 

" All the reasoning in favor of Slavery is eroneous, such 
as their being of the stock of Ham not having hair as long 
or as straight as ours, or their being of a different color, 
etc. It is enough to know, and it cannot be denied, that 
they are a part of God's creation — men." 

" I feel my mind bound from a sense of duty, to speak 
plainly in espousing the cause of the slave, in opening my 
mouth for the dumb, for those who have no representa- 
tives to appear in their behalf." 

11 I am under the necessity of differing with my friend 
when he supposes that the distinction which nature has 
made will devide us into parties, and produce convulsions 



C 17 ] 

which will probably never end but in the extermination of 
one or the other race. I am satisfied that this manner of 
treating- the subject tends very much to retard the work 
of emancipation." 

• c Can it be doubted that the groans of this oppressed 
part of the human family have reached the ears of the Lord 
God of Sabbaoth. Then surely this is an object which 
those who trust in Providence will be convinced would be 
aided by the Author of our being, should we invoke his 
blessing upon our endeavors." 

" I believe slavery is one chief cause of wars and ca- 
lamities.'' " Did any of the European nations, or even the 
savages of the wilderness ever equal the barbarities ex- 
ercised by some of the slaveholders towards their slaves, 
not only in the infliction of cruel corporeal punishment, but 
in the separation of the nearest ties of nature." 



Extract from an Epistle issued by the London Yearly 
Meeting, 1772. — " It likewise appears that the practice 
of holding negroes in oppression and unnatural bondage, 
hath been so successfully discouraged by Friends, in some 
of the colonies, as to be considerably lessened. We can- 
not but approve of these salutary endeavors, and earnestly 
entreat they may be continued, that, through the favor of 
Divine providence, a traffic so unmerciful and unjust in its 
nature to a part of our species, made, equally with our- 
selves, for immortality, may come to be considered by all 
in its proper light, and be utterly abolished, as a reproach 
to the Christian profession. — Lond. Epist. p. 307. 

T-he Epistle of 1786 says : " We have received intelli- 
gence from various quarters, that the testimony which we 
have borne against slavery, continues to gain ground : and 
we have great encouragement to persevere in our endea- 
vors to excite a general abhorrence of that oppressive prac- 
tice, p. .353. 

Extract from the Minutes of the Yearly Meeting held in 
Philadelphia, on 24th of Ninth month, and also by ad- 
journments from the 10th to the 15th of the Twelfth 
month, 1798, inclusive. 
"And the enormous iniquity of enslaving and trading 

in the persons of men, which crying abomination renew- 

2* 



[ 18 ] 

edly impressing the minds of many Friends with very 
painful sensations, under the awful prospect of Divine 
judgments manifest in the earth, it is desired that we may 
individually labor for qualification to offer up effectual, 
fervent prayers for the removal of this unspeakable wick- 
edness from our land. And that the Meeting for Suffer- 
ings, more especially, may suffer NO season to escape 
unimproved wherein there may be an opening for the re- 
lief of this grievously afflicted people, or for holding up 
our religious testimony against every species of this 
abominable evil." 

Extracts from a petition from the meeting for Suffer- 
ings, London, Eleventh month, 28th, 1783. 
" We are engaged under a sense of duty, to bear a public- 
testimony against a species of oppression which, under the 
sanction of national authority, has long been exercised up- 
on the natives of Africa, is grown up into a system of ty- 
ranny, and is unhappily become a considerable branch of 
the commerce of this kingdom : an oppression which in 
the injustice of its origin, and the inhumanity of its pro- 
gress, has not, we apprehend, been exceeded, or even 
equalled, in the most barbarous ages. 

" If we bring this matter home and as Job proposed to 
his friends, " put our soul in their soul's stead :" if we 
consider ourselves, and our children, as exposed to the 
hardships which those people lie under, in supporting an 
imaginary greatness : 

" Did we in such case, behold an increase of luxury and 
superfluity among our oppressors, and therewith feel an 
increase of the weight of our burdens, and expect our 
posterity to groan under oppression after us : 

" When we were hunger-bitten, and could not have suf- 
ficient nourishment, but saw them in fulness, pleasing 
their taste with things fetched from far: 

"When we were wearied with labor, denied the liberty 
to rest, and saw them spending their time at ease ; when 
garments answerable to our necessities, were denied us, 
while we saw them clothed in that which was costly and 
delicate ; 

"Under such afflictions, how would thesepainful feelings 
rise up as witnesses against their pretended devotion ! 



[ 19 ] 

And if the name of their religion were mentioned in our 
hearing, how would it sound in our ears, like a word which 
signified self-exaltation and hardness of heart ! 

" When a trade is carried on productive of much misery, 
and they who suffer by it are some thousands of miles off, 
the danger is the greater of not laying their sufferings to 
heart. 

" Many gfoans arise from dying men, which we hear not. 
Many cries are uttered by widows and fatherless children, 
which reach not our ears. Many cheeks are wet with 
tears, and faces sad with unutterable grief, which we see 
not. Cruel tyranny is encouraged. The hands of robbers 
are strengthened ; and thousands reduced to the most ab- 
ject slavery, who never injured us. 

" Were we for the term of one year only to be eye- 
witnesses to what passeth in getting these slaves ; was the 
blood which is there shed, to be sprinkled on our garments ; 
were the poor captives, bound with thongs, heavy laden 
with elephants' teeth, to pass before our eyes, in their way 
to the sea ; 

" Were their bitter lamentations, day after day, to] ring 
in our ears, and their mournful cries in the night, to hinder 
us from sleeping ! 

"Were we to hear the sound of the tumult, when the 
slaves on board the ships attempt to kill the English, and 
behold the issue of those bloody conflicts : what pious 
man could be a witness to these things, and see a trade 
carried on in this manner, without being deeply affected 
with sorrow?' 

" Our religious society in these kingdoms, and in North 
America, have for many years tenderly sympathized with 
this unhappy people, under their complicated sufferings, 
and have endeavored to procure them relief : nor has their 
cause been without other advocates ; whose numbers we 
have with much satisfaction observed to increase. The 
expectation of many, who are anxiously concerned for the 
suppression of this national evil, is now under Providence, 
fixed upon the wise and humane interposition of the legis- 
lature ; to whom, with dutiful submission, we earnestly 
recommend the serious consideration of this important 
subject. * * * That so the blessing of those who 
are ready to perish may rest upon you, and this nation 



[ 20 ] 

may no longer, on their account, remain obnoxious to the 
righteous judgments of the Lord, who, in the most awful 
manner, declared by his prophet, * That the land should 
tremble, and every one mourn that dwelleth therein, for 
the iniquity of those who oppress the poor, and crush the 
needy ;' and who likewise pronounced a ' woe unto him 
him, that buildeth his house by unrighteousness, and his 
chambers by wrong; that useth his neighbor's service 
without wages, and giveth him not for his work. 

Signed by order of the Meeting for Sufferings, London, 
the 28th day of the Eleventh month, 1783, by 

John Ady, 
Clerk to the Meeting." 



EXTRACT FROM JACOB LINDSEY'S LETTER. 

He was sold by his master to one H- ,who bought 

in slaves for the Georgia monsters ; to whom he was sold, 
and in their possession for fifteen days : after which, he 
cut his chain, and made a marvellous escape. 

Oh ! surely I may say, I shudder, and my tears involun- 
tarily steal from my eyes, for my poor oppressed, afflicted, 
tormented, black brethren ; — hunted, frighted to see a 
white man, — torn from every source of comfort that is 
worth living for in this stage of being. The tears, — the 
groans, — the sighs of these, have scarcely ascended to 
the ears of the Lord of Sabbaoth ; — and as a thick cloud, is 
awfully suspended over this land. I tenderly and trem- 
blingly feel for poor masters, involved in the difficulty. 
I am awfully awakened into fear, for our poor country, 
with the language, ** I gave her time and place to repent ; 
but she repented not: therefore I, saith the Supreme Arbi- 
ter of nations, Judge of all the earth, will," &c. Why do 
I thus digress ? But to return. Inclosed is a piece of Skin- 
ner's vest, as a token to Fanny his wife, that he is alive, 
and that there is no deception in the business ; more sure 
than the token to Jacob, of the death of poor Joseph ! 

Oh ! the Georgia Ishmaelities ! How abhorrent their 
trade ! How dark their poor souls, (O my soul, come not 
thou into their secret !) in sacrificing at mammon 's altar. 

Extracts from EJias HickS Observations on Slavery. 
" I shall only add, as a farther apology for the present 
edition, that the evil still continues : that there are still 



[ 21 ] 

slave holders, and consumers of the produce of the labor 
of slaves, wrested from them by violence." 

" And as the slave holder can have no moral right what- 
ever to the man he styles his slave, nor to the produce of 
his labor, he cannot possibly convey any to a second per- 
son by any transfer he can make : for, having nothing but 
a criminal possession himself, he can convey nothing to a 
second person but the same possession : and should this 
possession be continued through a line of transfer to the 
twentieth person, still it would be nothing more than the 
same criminal possession that was vested in the first pos- 
sessor, and would convey no moral right whatever." 

" For, although the first possessor committed the act of 
violence, when he took from the man he styles his slave 
his liberty, and compelled him to work, and by the same 
cruel force took from him the produce of his labor ; yet 
every purchaser of such slave and the produce of his la- 
bor, if he is apprized of the criminal circumstance attend- 
ing it, is as guilty as the first perpetrator ; and should such 
slave and the produce of his labor pass through the hands 
of twenty persons, all knowing at the time of transfer the 
criminal circumstances attending, each would be guilty of 
the entire crime of the first perpetrator. This being as- 
sented to, and I conceive it is incontrovertible, I have a 
hope that this edition may produce a good effect, and tend 
to raise up many more faithful advocates in the cause of 
this deeply oppressed people, who may be willing to suf- 
fer every necessary privation, rather than be guilty of the 
least thing that may, in any degree, possibly strengthen 
the hands of their oppressors. I therefore recommend 
this little treatise to the candid and impartial consideration 
of the reader, and subscribe myself his sincere friend, 

Elias Hicks." 

" Q. Does the highway robber, that meets his fellow- 
citizen on the highway, and robs him of all the property 
he has in his present possession, and then leaves him at 
liberty, without injuring his person, commit as high an 
act of felony, as he that steals or buys, or takes a man by 
violence, and reduces him to the wretched and degraded 
state of a slave for life ? 

" A. No ! in no wise. Which answer is founded on 
the self-evident proposition, that it is more criminal to rob 



[ 22 ] 

a man of his liberty and property, than only to rob him of 
his propertv. 

" Q. Does it lessen the criminality and wickedness of 
reducing our fellow creatures to the abject state of slavery, 
and continuing them therein, because the practice is tole- 
rated by the laws of the country we live in? 

" A. No ! by no means. Because, every rational crea- 
ture knows, or ought to know, that no law of men or na- 
tions, can altar the nature of immutable justice. The 
criminality remains as great in all cases of slavery, when 
inflicted without any criminality of the individual made a 
slave, under the sanction of law, as when it is not; and in 
some cases, greater : as in the instance of those govern- 
ments, where they are not only guilty of the cruelty and 
oppression of reducing, by mere power, without any pos- 
sible plea of right, their fellow creatures who have equal- 
ly a right with themselves to liberty, and the purchase of 
redemption by a Saviour's blood, to the abject and wretch- 
ed state of slaves, but are adding sin to sin, by making and 
continuing cruel laws to hold them still longer under the 
galling yoke. 

"Q. Would it be right and consistent with justice and 
equity, for the legislatures of the several states, and others 
concerned, to make laws entirely to abolish slavery in 
their respective states? 

"A. It would, doubtless, be entirely right, and perfectly 
consistent with equity and justice to make such laws ; and 
nothing, I apprehend, can exculpate them from the charge 
of blood-guiltiness short of so doing : as, no doubt, many 
of the poor victims of slavery suffer daily to the shedding 
of their blood, under the hands of some of the cruel men 
who pretend to be their masters, because they do not at 
all times immediately submit to their cruel and arbitrary 
wills. 

" Q. Would it not give just occasion for those who still 
have slaves in their possession, and especially to such as 
have lately purchased them, at a dear rate, to complain of 
wrong in thus taking from them, without their consent, 
what they esteem as their real property ? 

" A. The making and enforcing such laws cannot pos- 
sibly give just occasion for any such complaint; as it is 
impossible for any man to gain any just property in a ra- 



[ 23 ] 

tional being, as a slave, without his consent ; for, neither 
the slave dealer nor the planter have any moral right to 
the person of him they style their slave, to his labor, or to 
the produce of it; so, they can convey no right in such 
person, nor in the produce of his labor to another ; and 
whatever number of hands they may pass through, (if the 
criminal circumstances appertaining thereto be known to 
them at the time of the transfer,) they can only have a 
criminal possession ; and the money paid either for the 
slave or for the produce of his labor, is paid to obtain that 
criminal possession, and can confer no moral right what- 
ever ; and if the death of the person called a slave, be oc- 
casioned by the criminal possession, the criminal possessor 
is guilty of murder; and we who have knowingly done 
any act which might occasion his being in that situation, 
are accessaries to the murder, before the fact ; as by re- 
ceiving the produce of his labor, we are accessaries to the 
robbery after the fact. Therefore, I conceive, it must ap- 
pear clear and agreeable to truth and justice, that a man 
who should dare to be so hardy as to buy a fellow creature, 
whose liberty is withheld from him by violence and in- 
justice, ought not only to be obliged to set him free, and 
to forfeit the purchase money, but likewise to make full 
satisfaction to the person he had injured by such pur- 
chase." 



Most of these faithful laborers have long since been call- 
ed from works to rewards. They were far in advance of 
the general feeling on the subject, and labored ardently to 
awaken sympathy in the public mind. We, their de- 
scendants, have lived to see the seed which they have 
sown, spring up in a strong and greatly increasing interest, 
among mankind at large. The subject has now taken a 
deep hold of the public mind ; the axe of Truth has been 
laid at the root of the corrupt tree of Slavery; already 
we hear the agitation of its foliage as the wind of investi- 
gation whistles through it ; already have its very extreme 
branches begun to tremble ; already do we hear the voice 
of the cracking of the tree, which foretells its fall. And 
shall we, the descendants of Fox, as unworthy sons of 
Woolman and Benezet, falter on account of the agitation 
which is, as it were, shaking the very earth ? Fear not. 



[ 24 ] 

When the tree falls, it may be with a crash that will re- 
sound from one end of the land to the other. The intro- 
duction of the spiritual dispensation of the Christian reli- 
gion was not effected without agitation. — -The revival of 
spiritual Christianity — the peaceable doctrines of Quaker- 
ism — were not promulgated without excitement and deter- 
mined opposition. Truth and error, in their controversy, 
have ever, for a time, struggled fiercely for the mastery; 
but when faithfully adhered to, truth has always gained 
the victory. Every reform, in its beginning, has excited 
opposition and persecution — and we cannot suppose that 
the righteous cause of Universal Libery will achieve a 
victory over the injustice of Slavery, and the established 
and wicked customs and prejudices of men, with less ex- 
citement. 

Then, let us press forward with hope and confidence in 
the justice of the Creator, trusting that he will smile upon 
our endeavors to carry forward this reformation. Let us 
be found in the fast that he has chosen, in loosing the 
bands of wickedness, in breaking every yoke, and letting 
the oppressed go free. 



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